An inaugural lecture - Professor Sue Garton

• Registration and refreshments: 17:30
• Lecture: 18:00
• Drinks reception: 19:00 - 19:30

The Global Spread of English: What Lies Beneath?

English dominates the world stage. It is the language of business, science, technology, diplomacy, and the media. Nearly 400 million people speak it as a first language, and another 1.9 billion use it at what the British Council calls a ‘useful level’. The English language teaching (ELT) industry alone contributes around £2 billion to the UK economy each year. But behind this remarkable success story lie deeper questions about what global English really means.

In her inaugural lecture, Professor Sue Garton explores two of the most enduring myths: that native speakers make better teachers and that younger is better when it comes to learning English. Drawing on British Council–funded research, she will examine how such beliefs continue to shape English teaching worldwide and what their persistence reveals about the deeper forces driving what has been described as “possibly the world’s biggest policy development in education”: the global introduction of English into primary schooling.

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